An exposition of quackery and imposture in medicine : being a popular treatise on medical philosophy / With notes by W. Wright.

  • Ticknor, Caleb, 1804-1840.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An exposition of quackery and imposture in medicine : being a popular treatise on medical philosophy / With notes by W. Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    —a pest to all around him—who had been supported at the public expense, and whom all had been glad to bury there are those who would raise a cry of alarm, hunt down the doctor, and persecute him to an extreme but little short of death. And little difference would it make whether or not those who make the greatest ado about violating the grave, have been most benefited by the skill of him whom they seek to punish—they, or some member of their family, may have been snatched from the grasp of death by his agency, yet, in their persecution, they are unrelenting. It is right that one who never did good while living, who was an expense to the community, should be turned to some useful account when dead, by affording the means of instruction to preserve the lives and health of the living. What possible harm can it do to one, who has shuffled off this mortal coil, to be subjected, for a longer or shorter time, to the knife of the dissector ? He will, in any event, become the prey of worms—a mass of putrefaction—and be resolved into his elemental dust. The knife inflicts no pain, and should not the reflection, that good is to result to our species, eradicate the ancient prejudice that may be opposed to this use of our bodies ? Many, perhaps most, believe that it is all selfishness that prompts the doctor to manifest an eagerness to examine the bodies of the dead—that it is solely to ac- cumulate wealth, and acquire fame, that they endeavour to make themselves skilful. Such an imputation, the whole body of the profession will throw back with contempt, into the faces of those who make it. And again, others think that doctors are amply remunerated now, and would be glad if their fees could be diminished.